Digital health tool takes top spot in Lightbulb Moments competition

The Regional Australia Institute (RAI), together with the Minister for Regional Development John McVeigh, has announced the overall winner of its Lightbulb Moments competition as health-tech innovator, CleanM8 from Berkeley Vale, New South Wales.

Delivered in partnership with Prime7 and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR), the competition aims to help get the best regional community projects off the ground.

Dr McVeigh said the great ideas of locals help to strengthen economies and communities in rural, regional and remote Australia.

“The bright ideas of local people can have the biggest impact on regional communities, and it’s a privilege to support people like Brian and the Lightbulb Moments competition that are making a real difference,” Minister McVeigh said.

The overall winner, CleanM8, was selected by a panel of judges for its innovative concept and potential to positively impact communities nationwide.

The driving force behind the project is Brian Hill; an Occupational Therapist and founder of the digital health innovation company Laughing Mind. Brian describes CleanM8 as a platform with a suite of digital tools to assist those recovering from addiction to alcohol and other drugs (AOD), as well as their clinicians and support carers.

“CleanM8 is being designed to provide support from the first ‘motivated moment’ when a user decides to take a step towards change through to post-recovery, building new habits and supports to help reduce the risk of relapse,” said Brian.

The idea was sparked by talks with local doctors and rehabilitation services, strengthened by his own personal experience seeing close friends lose loved ones to depression and alcoholism.

“I could see there was a need, particularly in remote and rural Australia where it is difficult to access AOD treatment and recovery services. The added challenge for those areas is the lack of anonymity, where most people in the community know each other well – that’s a sweet spot for user-centred digital health tools,” said Brian.

The team’s intentions for the platform are for a strong evidence-based foundation, supported and informed by partnerships with research institutions, GPs and lived experience advocates, as well as using data and analytics to track, measure and evolve its impact.

Brian says the Lightbulb Moments competition has opened new doors to progress the project.

“The Lightbulb Moments competition and mentoring sessions have really helped us to identify secondary markets for the platform and increase the project’s profile. The new contacts we have made are also an invaluable part of the experience” Brian concluded.

CleanM8 is also calling for people to share their own #cleanm8stories across social media, wanting to find out what has worked to help their individual rehabilitation journey, what hasn’t and what they would like to see put in place. These stories will help to build and improve the CleanM8 digital platform.